By Cassandra
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You don’t actually need very much at all to start living a more frugal lifestyle but there are a few things that you can invest in that will certainly help so I thought I’d spend some time today sharing my favourite frugal investments with you….
I know it might sound silly to be recommending that you actually spend money buying things to help you save money but bear with me, these things are things that I’ve bought that have saved me money or allowed me to be frugal without having to make a huge effort that I don’t necessarily have time for as a working mum who doesn’t have enough hours in the day without adding extra work!
Slow cooker
I can’t tell you how much I love my slow cooker! Without it, I wouldn’t manage to cook nearly as many home cooked meals from scratch as you can literally just throw everything in the slow cooker, switch it on and go to work and by the time I get home there’s a gorgeous meal ready to serve. I can cook huge portions in mine which means I can cook extra and pop some in the freezer for another day.
This is the one I have and I love it although I have seen similar sized ones in Tesco over the last week selling for £10 which is a great price. It’s more basic than mine but I’m sure it will do exactly the same job.
Soup Maker
I’ll be honest, this is totally not a necessity in any way but since I’ve had my soup maker I’ve saved a fortune!
I use it more often than I use any other gadget in my kitchen at the moment and make soup much more often than I would if I had to faff around with preparing the veg, cooking it and then blending it all up. I just don’t have time for that whereas with my soup maker, I can roughly chop (not peel) some raw veg, add a stock cube and water and set it to go. Literally 21 minutes later and delicious soup is ready to go!
Because it’s so easy to make, I’ve tried so many different combinations (here’s my favourite five) and have managed to use up leftovers to avoid waste time after time. I’ve also found so many reduced bargains at the supermarket on the pre-prepared fresh veg soup mixes and often pick up a bag for 20p and under which will do for tea with toasties for us all or a couple of days packed lunches (these are brilliant for storing soup in the fridge in)
This is the one I have and it’s selling on Amazon for less than Mr Frugal paid for it in Currys last year.
A Clothes Airer
When we moved house, we gave our tumble drier away because it genuinely cost a fortune to run. I started hanging my washing out on the line more often and when the weather isn’t kind enough to let me hang the washing out, I just put it on a clothes airer in the house to dry.
I have something very similar to this one except I got mine in the reduced section at Tesco as one of the side bars was loose. It was nothing that a bit of superglue couldn’t fix and the £6 it cost us has more than paid for itself over the years we’ve had it.
A freezer
We already had a freezer that was part of our fridge freezer but it didn’t give me the space to store many reduced bargains or much batch cooking by the time you take into account the usual things a freezer would hold. We had a gap in our kitchen for a dishwasher and last year we almost bought one but instead, we decided to put a second freezer in the gap to give us more space. Last month we also got another freezer off my Dad which we keep in our garage so we have three freezers altogether. I’ve written here about how I organise my freezer space to give you an idea of just how much you can do with a little more freezer space and it’s really something I’d recommend considering.
This is the one my Dad gave us – look at all the space!
A breadmaker
I did get a breadmaker for Christmas this year but I’m not sure yet if this is going to save us money as a family as we don’t really each too much bread. It’s certainly saved me plenty of time making pizza dough and dough for the flatbreads I make but I’m not sure yet if I would personally recommend this as a frugal investment. So many other people tell me how great they are though and how much money they’ve saved so it’s definitely worth considering for your family.
As I said, you definitely don’t need any of these things to be more frugal and to save money at home but they’ll certainly help you if you do have them.
I’m planning a frugal cleaning kit guide in the next couple of weeks so do keep your eyes open!
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